We are climate leaders: "Alberta is regulating GHG emissions in the oil sands region by being the only jurisdiction in North America with mandatory reduction targets for large emitters across all sectors." Specifically, Alberta requires large climate polluters to pay $15 for every tonne of CO2 that exceeds their limits.

What they leave out

Alberta exempts 96% of their provincial climate pollution.

Last year, only 2% of Alberta's climate pollution paid the $15 carbon fine. That worked out to just 24 cents per tonne of climate pollution in the province's economy. It was less than nine cents per barrel of tar sands bitumen.

In contrast, 70% of climate emissions in BC have to pay our $30 carbon tax. The result is that BC charged 70 times more in carbon fees per tonne of climate pollution in their economy.

According to Environment Canada, Alberta's current climate policies are too weak to prevent their emissions from increasing dramatically by 2020. All of this increase in emissions will be caused by the tar sands industry.

My three charts below provide different views of Alberta's climate pollution problem. The first shows how Alberta climate policies have been applied to past emissions. The next two show Environment Canada (EC) projections for Alberta's climate pollution in 2020.